The Strad Disaster: "Spanish" Cello Damaged During Photo Shoot

By Matt Lammers and Andy Fein of Fein Violins

As of a little over three weeks ago the Spanish Royal Palace is faced with a problem that has classical musicians everywhere cringing: the 1694 Stradivarius cello known as the "Spanish" was severely damaged during a routine photo shoot. While the cello was being positioned alongside its counterparts, the two violins and viola of the "Spanish Quartet," it was knocked off its side from a table onto the floor.

Vera Martinez, Abel Tomas (violins), Jonathan Brown (viola), and Arnau Tomas (cello) of the Casals Quartet, who currently perform using Stradivarius' Spanish Quartet

Misha Maisky - Virtuoso Cellist, Soviet Prison Inmate

By Stefan Aune

Phenomenal cellist Misha Maisky was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1948. His cello studies took him to Leningrad and eventually to Moscow, where he studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Rostropovich. Maisky's sister had earlier emigrated from the Soviety Union to Israel with her family, and the Soviet authorities suspected that Misha would eventually do the same (a suspicion that was, indeed, accurate.) This, in Maisky's own words, "annoyed" the Soviet authorities, and since Maisky was determined to finish his education at the conservatory before leaving the Soviet Union, they did everything they could to disrupt his progress. Concerts were canceled, trips outside the Soviet Union were prohibited, and life was generally made difficult for the budding cellist. Maisky was undeterred, and he relates in this fascinating clip on the WQXR blog that eventually a plot was hatched to arrest and imprison him before he could finish his degree.

Misha Maisky is known for his fanciful outfits

Joshua Bell and Towel-Wearing Hotel Thief

By Stefan Aune

World renowned violin soloist Joshua Bell, known for his distinctive good looks, was recently the victim of a daring hotel room robbery. While performing in the town of Zaragoza, Spain with the London Philharmonic, Bell stayed in a 5-star hotel room. During Bell's evening performance with the orchestra, an impersonator managed to convince hotel staff that he was Bell, and having lost his keys, needed help accessing his room.

The robber must have been good looking, if he managed to impersonate  Joshua Bell

Once in the room, the Bell impersonator took off his clothes and donned a towel. He then contacted the front desk, complaining that he was having difficulty accessing the room safe. When a hotel representative arrived at the door, the thief answered wearing the towel, and his casual, just-out-of-the-shower appearance convinced the staff person that an ID check was unnecessary. Once the hotel representative had opened the safe, the thief cleaned it out, stealing Bell's $38,000 watch, a laptop, cash, and other personal belongings.

Joshua Bell performing

In a statement, Bell said he was "amazed at how easy it was for this to occur," and he's probably right that security should have been tighter. But we can at least be thankful that his 4$ million dollar Stradivarius, the Gibson ex-Huberman, was safety tucked under his chin during a performance, rather than resting in the hotel room. It would be a tragedy if Joshua Bell lost the instrument he so masterfully performs on. We can probably rest assured that security is a bit tighter at the hotel in Zaragoza, and hopefully the naked-towel thief won't be able to strike again.

Without Trees There Is No Music: The Conservation of Pernambuco Wood

By Stefan Aune

Since the earliest European bow makers first sought to perfect the stringed-instrument bow, "pernambuco," or "Brazil wood," has reigned supreme as the material of choice. Sadly, the history of pernambuco is intimately tied to the processes of colonization and resource extraction that have had devastating consequences for the peoples and environments of North and South America. For a frame of reference on the history of pernambuco, check out a previous blog I wrote on the relationship between colonial resource extraction and the wood's rise to prominence in the hands of European bow-makers. Today pernambuco is endangered, and the continuing demand for wood bows is making the material increasingly difficult to acquire. Pernambuco's natural forest habitat is currently at about 10% of its pre-Columbian size, and pernambuco trees are notoriously fickle when grown in controlled, farm environments.

The harvest of pernambuco wood during the colonial period

Antonio Stradivari's Cellos

By Andy Fein, Violin Maker & Owner, Fein Violins, Ltd.

If you have read some of my past blog posts, you probably realize I love Stradivarius violins. But it is Stradivarius' cellos that I am enamored with. I really love Stradivarius cellos. I really, really, love Stradivarius cellos.

The first Stradivarius cello I encountered is the one that has stuck in my memory for decades. The 'Braga' cello, made by Stradivarius in Cremona about 1731. The 'Braga' is currently played by the wonderful Korean cellist Myung-Wha Chung. It is one of the few cellos that was made on the smaller scale form that Stradivarius developed, the 'Forma B Piccola'. While I was in my apprenticeship in Chicago, Kenneth Warren, Sr. brought the 'Braga' cello to us to examine. I took the opportunity to spend an immense amount of time with it. OK, I fell in love with it!

Steven Isserlis and his Stradivarius cello